In my head I'm not a guy who does go down or cheats, Henry claims

Thierry Henry denied cheating to win the free-kick that led to France's second goal against Spain. Seven minutes from time Henry was barged in the chest by Carles Puyol as the pair clashed for a loose ball however as the Arsenal striker went down he clutched his face in howled anguish, as if he had been pole-axed by a flying elbow.

But afterwards Henry denied any suggestion of trying to con the referee Roberto Rosetti and claimed that Puyol had committed a "basketball block" on him.

"Puyol came up to me afterwards and apologised so how is that cheating?," he said. "Spain's left-back Mariano Perina was going to win the ball, so I don't know why Puyol cut across me, but he did. I don't cheat. People can say whatever they want to say but if any team has been cheated since the beginning of the tournament it's France," he added, referring to Patrick Vieira's disallowed goal against South Korea. "Look at the replay, their left-back was going to take the ball and Puyol came across me and blocked me.

"If that's basketball that's a good block, but we're not playing basketball. In my head I'm not a guy who does go down or cheats."

But Spain's coach Luis Aragones did not agree with Henry's analysis. "For me the referee blew for a non-existent foul for the second goal," he said. "However I don't blame the referee because we also made two mistakes late on. The French are never dead, they are always strong. They killed us on the counter-attack, but that's football. The players have done their very best, but we wanted more."

The France coach Raymond Domenech, meanwhile, neatly side-stepped questions about the Henry's play-acting and instead boldly predicted that his side could win the World Cup.

"There were a few difficult moments but we took control as the match went on," he said. "I can't predict the future, but all I know is that we want to go further. We want to be in Berlin on July 9. It's our project, that's our plan. We have enormous potential and we can get better.

"The Brazil game will be the most important of my life. Not many coaches have led a team into the quarter-finals of a World Cup, so I'm satisfied. But we will give them a game."